Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
of peace, international security and respect for human rights. The
rise to 'superpower' status of the Soviet Union, challenging the
United States' post-1945 hegemony in global affairs, then thrust
the world into geo-political struggles between 'East' and 'West' or, as
ideological and militaristic propaganda would label it: 'communism
versus capitalism'. With peace and security and General Assembly
negotiations being the heart of its mandate, the United Nations was
never able to become fully involved in the 'development project', in
comparison to the World Bank and other international financial
institutions (IFIs).
Non-Aligned Movement
Elsewhere, the Non-Aligned Movement of newly independent nations
would come into being in 1955. This was championed by the likes of
Egypt's Nasser, India's Nehru, Ghana's Nkrumah, Yugoslavia's Tito, and
Indonesia's Sukarno at the Bandung Conference in Indonesia. A decade
later in 1966, at the Tri-Continental Conference called in defence of the
Vietnamese revolution and held in Havana, Cuba, Che Guevara would
sound the call for armed struggle in the pursuit of national liberation
'against the great enemy of mankind: the United States of America' -
that would usher in years of military strife, dictatorial excesses, political
coups, and disastrous revolutions and counter-revolutions. In terms of
contributing to the social, economic and geo-political development of glo-
bal South constituents, however, this Non-Aligned Movement would
never become a major influence in global affairs.
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United Nations' Commissions: Advocates of Alternative
Development Strategies
As noted in Chapter 2.2, the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation devoted
considerable attention to an alternative development path - the 'What
Now' project - which culminated in the 1975 Report,
What Now?
Another Development
, and the monograph
Another Development:
Approaches and Strategies
(1977). Prepared as independent contribu-
tions to Special Sessions of the United Nations General Assembly,
What Now
proposed a set of humanistic principles as alternatives to the
established order and for the reformation of international relations and
the United Nations system. The
What Now
Report was envisaged as a
'tribute to the man, who more than any other, gave the United Nations
